Lamentations 3:41

3:41 Let us lift up our hearts ¹  and our hands

to God in heaven:

Lamentations 2:15

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ² 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ³ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ⁴ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ⁵ 

[3:41]  ¹ tc The MT reads the singular noun לְבָבֵנוּ (lÿvavenu, “our heart”) but the ancient versions (LXX, Aramaic Targum, Latin Vulgate) and many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural noun לְבָבֵינוּ (lÿvavenu, “our hearts”). Hebrew regularly places plural pronouns on singular nouns used as a collective (135 times on the singular “heart” and only twice on the plural “hearts”). The plural “hearts” in any Hebrew construction is actually rather rare. The LXX renders similar Hebrew constructions (singular “heart” plus a plural pronoun) with the plural “hearts” about 1/3 of the time, therefore it cannot be considered evidence for the reading. The Vulgate may have been influenced by the LXX. Although a distributive sense is appropriate for a much higher percentage of passages using the plural “hearts” in the LXX, no clear reason for the differentiation in the LXX has emerged. Likely the singular Hebrew form is original but the meaning is best represented in English with the plural.

[2:15]  ² tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ³ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.